The cordons erected by the pro-European opposition on Maidan
Square are constantly patrolled by activists.

Demonstrators have been pouring water next to a barricade leading
to the presidential administration building, hoping that a
possible police assault would be hindered by the icy surface, RIA
reported. Protesters also blocked the entrance to the
government’s clubhouse, setting up tents and burning bonfires
near the barricade.

Thousands of other protesters in the meantime burned bundles of
firewood and drinked hot tea to stay warm in -3 degrees Celsius
weather. A few hundred more have made it to the Oktabrisky Palace
some 600 metres away from the main square.

As the city awakes to a new day, the presidential administration
building is constantly under guard by special forces. There is
also a heavy police presence next to the Ukrainian government
building.

On Monday opposition leaders formed a column of protesters that
marched to the Ukrainian government headquarters and encircled
it, declaring they would stay there all day to prevent the
government from functioning. Protesters have also announced a
national strike beginning Monday.

Eight buses with officers from the Berkut riot police squad are
parked in the courtyard of the government building, but they are
not interfering with the demonstrators. Police are guarding the
entrances to the cabinet.

Those blocking government headquarters are carrying national
flags and banners of the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party,
following overnight clashes with the police.

Opposition leaders have addressed their supporters and reiterated
their demands: resignation of both the government and the
president and early presidential and parliamentary elections.

info from locals: buses with people en route to Kiev from the
regions #euromaidan

Kiev mayor, Aleksandr Popov, has called on the protesters
occupying the city administration building to “let the
employees work normally for the city, its citizens and
guests”. Popov warned that blocking the administration’s
work may result in “delays in payments for public sector
workers, food shortages, water, power and heating
shortages”, and may disrupt the work of hospitals, schools
and kindergartens.

Former minister of the interior and currently one of the leaders
of the opposition, Yury Lutsenko, called on the people to rally
near the cabinet building and not to approach the presidential
administration, which was fruitlessly sieged on Sunday.

The rally near the seat of government will continue until “an
order to return to Maidan [Independence Square]
comes,” Lutsenko stressed.

Protest leaders are stressing that the march is peaceful and are
calling on their supporters to “remain calm”.

But the Ukrainian authorities see “signs of a coup” in
the attempts to block the government agencies by the protesters,
Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov said on Monday during a meeting with ambassadors
from EU states and the US in Kiev.

Some political forces have “an illusion” that they can
topple the government, Azarov said, adding that the government is
nevertheless exercising restraint and has ordered police not use
force against peaceful demonstrators.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the
developments in Kiev have no direct relation to Ukraine and the
EU deal, and that they had been prepared by the opposition to
undermine the country's legitimate government.

“As far as the events in Ukraine are concerned, to me they
don’t look like a revolution, but rather like 'pogrom'. However
strange this might seem, in my view it has little to do with
Ukrainian-EU relations,” Putin said.

The Ukrainian protest reached a head of steam the previous night
in fierce clashes with police, who were trying
to contain a human sea of reportedly around 500,000 protesting
people.

Some senior EU politicians have blamed Russia for what's led to
the situation in Kiev, saying it was Kremlin interference that
sunk the deal with the EU.

But the fact that some European politicians are getting involved
directly in the protests in Ukraine, and are calling for a
revolution and a regime change in the country “is the most
egregious violation of the UN Charter and international law,
violation of sovereignty and noninterference into domestic
affairs of other states,” Mark Sleboda, professor of
international relations at Moscow State University, speaking to
RT.

The clashes left 165 activists wounded, 109 of whom were
hospitalized overnight. Reportedly, nearly 140 law enforcement
officers were also injured, and no less than 75 of them were
brought to hospitals, five in serious condition.

Over 40 journalists suffered injuries in recent clashes between
protesters and police in Kiev. Most of them were wounded during
the siege of the presidential administration on Sunday, Interfax
reported.

Despite the huge number of people taking part in the protests,
police said the ‘spear’ of protesters, who lashed police ranks,
were groups of young aggressive activists. Masked and wearing
helmets, armed with tubes and metal rods, they were a rogue
element numbered in the mere hundreds, according to the police.
Most of them belong to ultra-right nationalist groups.

"The presidential administration building became a scene of a
battlefield on Sunday as several hundred protesters clashed with
the police in a very brutal for Ukraine manner with rocks flying
towards the police, tear gas and flashbangs used (against the
police); this was pretty much hell breaking loose," RT's
Aleksey Yaroshevsky reported.

The demonstrators managed to storm the Kiev City Council building
and headquarters of the Ukrainian trade unions, but police
managed to protect other government buildings.

Having failed to seize major government buildings in the
Ukrainian capital and paralyze the work of the government and
presidential administration, opposition activists are gearing up
to make another attempt to gain the upper hand for more
bargaining power.

“We should be careful about attributing what’s going on to
the majority of people in Ukraine. I suspect that the tragedy of
Ukraine is that the great majority of people is rather passive
and certainly rather disillusioned about politics on both
sides,” Mark Almond, professor of history at Oxford
University told RT. In the end the minority groups of
nationalists supported from the EU might succeed in creating a
really volatile situation, which would question "whether
Ukraine is viable as a state", Almond warned.

In the meantime, police are negotiating with opposition members
who remain inside the seized buildings, trying to talk them into
leaving the scene peacefully. They are trying to persuade the
activists that in view of the start of a new working week, civil
servants must return to work in the mayor’s office and trade
unions’ headquarters.

Some intruders have agreed to move on to Maidan Square and join
activists who remain there behind barricades, guarding territory
gains made overnight.

The city of Kiev is now much quieter. The number of protesters
has decreased dramatically, practically 100-fold, from the
estimated 500,000 to 5,000 currently rallying near the government
residence. The protesters remaining on Maidan Square have even
made passageways in the barricades to allow pedestrians through.
Several police buses are parked next to the presidential
headquarters, providing protective security.